The distinction of problems v/s situations felt instantly clarifying. As a strongly problem-driven person, I can now say that whenever I've struggled it was by

The distinction of problems v/s situations felt instantly clarifying. As a strongly problem-driven person, I can now say that whenever I've struggled it was by conflating bad-for-me situations with singular problems. I can tell because my struggles abated when I walked away from those (stopped thinking "If only we / they did X."). Perhaps the way to alter a situation---if there is no way out---is to find and fix a set of well-chosen related problems, because a situation is a complex web of problems. This is what makes situations challenging. There is no way to tell when we're "done", and choosing to address them could very well mean doing a life's work. It helps to argue that a startup is a situation. So is a turnaround. So is recovering one's lost health. Being married. Raising children. A big software rewrite.